A good year to buy Red Deer Kinsmen Dream Home tickets

The chance of winning the 2017 Kinsmen Dream Home in Red Deer is better than ever.

Scott Bourke, dream home co-chair, said this year there are 8,400 single and multiple ticket bundles available compared to 11,300 last year.

The actual number of tickets for the draw is 14,500, down from 19,500 last year.

“We dropped the number of tickets available to make it better odds for people to win the house,” Bourke said on Saturday.

He said Kinsmen realize it’s not the best of times for a lot of people.

“There’s a lot of people in industries that are starting to go back to work, which is good. We’re hoping they take a chance on winning the house.”

Last year close to 8,000 single and multiple ticket bundles were sold.

“This year we’re hoping to hit that 8,400 and sell it out.”

Also new this year is the draw date, maybe. If the lottery is not sold out by Dec. 30, tickets will be sold until midnight Dec. 31 and the draw will be held Jan. 6.

In past years ticket sales ended at 6 p.m. Dec. 31 and the draw was held that night.

Bourke said the change will provide an opportunity to sell more tickets if necessary and more time to prepare for the draw.

The 37th dream home offered by Red Deer Kinsmen is a 2,327 sq. ft., two-storey house. The contemporary design has three bedrooms and two-and-a-half baths. A culinary kitchen opens to a living room with 17-foot ceiling and a floor to ceiling brick fireplace.

Located at 98 Longmire Close and built by Larkaun Homes, it is valued at $700,000.

“It’s got a nice, big wide-open kitchen. Cabinets that wrap around into the dining area, a huge walk in pantry,” Bourke said.

The master bedroom, with en-suite, has a wine fridge in the bedroom.

“First time we’ve ever seen that. That’s been kind of a hit with a bunch of people.”

He said lottery information has already gone out to previous buyers and so far about 20 per cent of tickets have been sold.

Dream home tickets are one for $100, three for $250 and five for $375.

The loyalty draw cut-off is Sunday at 11:59 p.m. with the draw on Nov. 2. The early bird cut-off is Nov. 26 at 11:59 p.m., and the draw is Nov. 30.

Dream Home tickets can be purchased at the dream home, open Saturday and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., or online at https://reddeerkinsmen.com/dream-home-lottery.

Tickets for the 50/50 draw are one for $10, four for $25 and 1o for $50 with a guaranteed prize of $50,000 and a maximum payout of $125,000